A day-long workshop revolving around issues faced by migrant workers took place at the University of Windsor's School of Social Work Friday.
Main sessions dealt with issues around worker safety, immigration concerns and communication challenges.
The event involved representatives of several agencies, university researchers, grower groups as well as several migrant workers.
Valerie Wolfe is Executive Director Occupational Health Clinics for Ontario Workers which put together the event.
She says one of their goals is to make sure both the farmers and the workers understand their roles and responsibilities.
"Our main issue is to foster communication on the farms about health and safety and about other issues so that workers feel confident, " she says. "It is an empowerment but understanding their rights, understanding what their duties and responsibilities are which includes communicating about hazards."
Wolfe says language barriers are a significant issue for the migrant workers.
"It is not only that you have to deliver a clinic on Friday evenings or Sunday but you need somebody there who can translate and you need cultural awareness training for the practitioners so they understand some of the anxieties that workers have."
She says these jobs are a huge leg up for the migrant workers, but it comes at a cost.
"They are creating wealth for their families and from impoverished areas but they are willing to come here and be isolated and distanced from their families, eight months of the year, some of them for 30 years."
In the past most of the migrant workers came from the Caribbean areas, primarily Jamaica and Mexico, but now there are a number from Thailand.